Whether you are considering a home addition, renovation or are planning to build a new home, there are a vast number of opportunities to help reduce your carbon footprint and help improve the environment in which we live. Decisions that you make during the planning and construction phase for your... click here for more

smart energy management, home energy labeling, water conservation, calculating carbon footprints, and zero-energy homes will be among the top trends to emerge this year. Source: residential architect onlinePublication date: January 14, 2010By Stephani L. MillerThe housing industry's ongoing distress has not dampened the enthusiasm for energy-efficient, healthy, and environmentally sensitive... click here for more

Source: residential architect onlinePublication date: June 30, 2009By Stephani L. MillerAccording to The American Institute of Architects' (AIA) first quarter 2009 "Home Design Trends Survey," demand for less living space and overall smaller-sized homes has increased in recent years. Homeowners also are showing a greater preference for lower ceilings and... click here for more

Woodborne Design is the first residential design company in the High Country to join the EPA in offering an optional "Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR" label on its home plans. Since Woodborne Design is as committed to quality and value as it is to a healthy environment and a... click here for more

If you’ve been planning to build a new home, you’ve surely had many decisions to make - and recently, a long list of reservations. One of your biggest decisions has probably been when to build considering the current economic situation. And that, no doubt, has been a difficult decision to... click here for more

First, let me attempt to define green. Almost every imaginable slice of the building industry has claimed to be green even if it means only the use of wood or bamboo flooring or "organic" cellulose for insulation. To be green, a building should be durable, flexible, efficient, sustainable in all... click here for more

ASHEVILLE – Western North Carolina Green Building Council has been selected by the U.S. Green Building Council to serve the local market as a LEED for Homes Provider, helping to certify new homes as green and energy-efficient. LEED for Homes is a national third-party certification system for energy efficient, healthy,... click here for more

Greg Gregory is president of Builders Supply Company in Lancaster, SC, located near Charlotte, NC. Greg is also a South Carolina State Senator. Greg offers his fellow owners and managers his unique insights into the housing crises and where housing is likely to go from where it is today. Note:... click here for more

Consumers expect to double their spending on green products and services during 2008, totaling an estimated $500 billion annually or $43 billion per month. You want some of that expenditure? If so, you have to put the pieces of the green puzzle together. And a puzzle it is, because now... click here for more

Green building and sustainable planning consultant Jerry Yudelson, PE, LEED AP, recently released his top 10 predictions for the green building industry in 2009. Yudelson, the founder and principal of Yudelson Associates, Tuscon, Ariz., has authored eight books on green building, is a frequent speaker at industry and professional conferences,... click here for more

   With the downturn in the U.S. economy and the resultant effect on world markets, homeowners and small business owners are challenged to find low-risk options to protect their wealth or to provide reasonable long-term return on their investments. One option lies in their own home or business facilities: investing... click here for more

 Wouldn’t it be nice if the power company sent you a check every month? Duke Energy actually does send Hickory resident Frances Thompson a partial reimbursement for her monthly bill. Thompson’s house has a solar-photovoltaic array on its rooftop. Because the solar-electric system is tied in with the power grid,... click here for more

The built environment is an energy hog. The U.S. EPA has estimated that 68 percent of electricity consumption, 30 percent of landfill waste and 38 percent of carbon-dioxide emissions in this country can be attributed to buildings. Lumber used in new construction may originate from dramatic clear-cuts that ravage forest... click here for more

Anyone who talks about green building most likely has a unique definition of what it means. Hopefully, all ideas include elements of sustainability, energy efficiency and natural-resource conservation. In the absence of a universally approved definition of green, a recent wave of certification programs has emerged to prevent greenwashing, and... click here for more

Kermit the Frog’s famous line, “It’s not easy being green,” may still hold true today. But some developers or manufacturers who want to take advantage of a growing demand for environmentally friendly products have learned that it is easy to label something as green, even if they haven’t gone the... click here for more

Everyone is lamenting the deflation of the housing bubble. But there's at least one bright side to its departure. The housing boom did a major disservice to the house. It caused nearly everyone—owners, bankers, Realtors, builders, and even architects, in some cases—to think of houses as investments. When you think... click here for more

Being passive isn’t always a bad thing, especially when it’s passive solar heating and cooling. The idea behind passive solar is to design buildings that take advantage of natural heat from the sun in winter; and shade and wind and in the summer. Although the concept has been used in... click here for more

For anyone considering the use of timber in their next building project, the folks at Carolina Timberworks have put together an excellent introduction to the wonderful world of timber framing. We highly recommend checking out this introductory primer as a way to start getting yourself up to speed about the... click here for more

There’s just something special about a log home; maybe it’s a remnant of the pioneer spirit now indelibly written into the genetic code of the American dream. Maybe it’s that log homes fulfill a desire to get back to basics, to feel closer to nature, and to be reminded of... click here for more